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Tag: yarn along

I’m an inveterate goal setter. I think the reason for this is that having a goal provides a vantage point; it gives me someplace to start and somewhere to go. It’s like a good story. With a goal you get a beginning, a middle, and an end, and even if the end doesn’t turn out to be what you hoped for, it’s meaningful because it was part of something bigger.

My goals have been all over the place. In high school I decided I wanted to learn to speak French well enough that I could go to France by myself and fit in. It took me several years beyond high school to make this happen, but eventually it did. One time, I decided I wanted to get strong enough to bench press my body weight. I told myself that if I could do it, I’d get a tattoo. I did, and I did.

There have been plenty of instances of failure in the goal achieving department. I have yet to knit a complete blanket, and there’s that dissertation that’s missing a few chapters. The thing about even these unrealized goals, though, is that by staking a claim in my consciousness and my day-to-day life, they’ve made possible some of the most meaningful experiences I’ve ever had.

I mention all of this for obvious reasons. I don’t usually make resolutions, but I do like to begin the year with a sense of where I want to direct my attention. This year, one of the things I’ve decided to do is participate in the #spin15aday2018challenge.

Knitting just is. It happens regardless. Sometimes, I might have a goal of tackling a particular technique or completing a special project (looking at you here, blanket), but I don’t need extra motivation to knit any more than I do to breathe.

Spinning is different, though. I enjoy it immensely, and actually knitting with my own handspun . . . Well, that was transformative. The thing is, I tend to get caught up in the particulars. I worry that my yarn isn’t consistent, that the twist of the singles isn’t right for the twist of the ply, that my prep is incomplete or downright wrong, that I’m not treating the fiber in the way it wants to be treated. I’ve vowed to let my hands take over and do it by feel. I’ve also tried measuring every possible variable. Neither approach has felt right enough to be completely satisfying. So, I spin in fits and starts.

Well, the other day I happened across the #spin15aday2018challenge. Sherrill, The 1764 Shepherdess, has been spearheading this challenge since 2015. Who knew??

About ten thousand people on instagram, apparently.

But anyway . . .

This challenge is a wonderful thing. Many, many of the instagram pics feature dazzling work. There is also quite a community that has developed around the idea. A lot of those who participate are doing the January #wemakeyarn challenge, created by @ThreeWatersFarm and @KnittingSarah. Posters respond to prompts related to their fiber lives with both photos and explanations. The insight this is offering into spinners’ minds and habits is incredible. File it under “feeding the soul,” people. Seriously, follow that hashtag! You won’t be sorry.

But I digress . . . I have committed to trying to spin for at least 15 minutes every day in 2018. It’s been five days, and I’m already a changed spinner. No kidding. This post is getting long, so I won’t go into all of the particulars, but at least this time, with this fiber, I was able to hear it tell me what it wants to be. I had it all wrong initially. Wrong spindle, wrong gauge, all of it. In fifteen minutes a day, with no goal other than spinning fiber for a short time, I learned that I haven’t been listening. I’m starting to think that with spinning, my goal should simply be to spin, at least for now, and see what happens.

Despite the sad demise of the Yarn Along, knitting and reading continue as always here at Casa Knit Potion.

It was cause for celebration when Anne Lamott’s new book arrived on my doorstep the day before yesterday.

Here’s the quote from the back cover:

I’m not sure I even recognize the ever-presence of mercy anymore, the divine and the human; the messy, crippled, transforming, heartbreaking, lovely, devastating presence of mercy. But I have come to believe that I am starving to death for it, and my world is too.

This.

My knitting is the English Mesh Lace Scarf I started at least a year ago. I think it’s going to be a favorite when I finish it in about 2050. I do a pattern repeat once a month or so. It’s the Kidsilk Haze. I don’t love knitting with it.

What I am loving knitting is this Dog Sweater. I started it last night and should finish up this evening while I’m catching up on The Americans. I’m making it for my cousin’s precious, little, one-eyed dog, Bandit. My track record with dog sweaters isn’t the best, but I’m ever hopeful.

I took this picture while we were waiting for dinner at our local Thai restaurant. Paul and I went there after an evening walk. We both needed some fresh air, so we drove over to a very pretty, hilly trail that winds around above town. The National Cemetery sits down below.

And the redbuds are in bloom.

It was nice.

In other news the #yarnlovechallengeapril is underway on Instagram, and the prompts are inspired. Today’s was “hands.” These were a couple of my favorite photos.

I’m racing a storm to get this posted before the power goes out, so I’ll just leave this with no additional commentary other than that I highly recommend both the pattern, Inlet, and the book, Michael Pollan’s Second Nature!

P.S. Doh! I’m a day early!!!! I’ll update tomorrow with a link to the Small Things blog where everyone else will be posting about what they are reading and knitting.

P.P.S. Wow . . . The Yarn Along has come to an end. I’m so sad. Take a look at this post for Ginny Sheller’s perfectly reasonable explanation of why she’s no longer going to be hosting it. I really do understand. But I’m still sad.

Reading and knitting are both turning out to be deeply rewarding this week. A good friend told me about The Yellow Birdsby Kevin Powers. My godson was reading it for school, and my friend decided to read along with him. I should mention that she is one of the very few people whose reading recommendations I accept without question. She said the book was a must read and shared the following comment from the author.

“The impulse to write The Yellow Birds came from a desire to look for some truth that I hoped could be found at the core of that most extreme of human experiences [war]. I also thought that by placing the emphasis on the language, using it to demonstrate the main character’s perpetual, unbearable sense of awe and wonder, I’d have at least a chance of connecting to another human being on an emotional level. I wanted to engage with the imagination above all else, because I believe that empathy is an imaginative act.”

I ordered the book right away, and I started reading it today. As always, my friend was right. The first sentence blew me away, and it’s been like that every page since. The writing is absolutely incredible.

My knitting has been on Inlet. Peace Fleece is one of my favorite yarns, and this “Mourning Dove” colorway is gorgeous. It changes depending on the light, so every time I look at it, it’s like I’m seeing something new. I’ve just started the waist shaping on the back. Generally, I don’t do a lot of shaping, but it turns out I’m kind of enjoying it with this.

Be well, my friends! And stop by the Small Things blog to see what other people are knitting and reading this week.

I really love the Wednesday Yarn Along. Ginny Sheller hosts this weekly what-you’re-knitting and what-you’re-reading photo op on her blog, Small Things. Stop by for links to what are usually close to a hundred blog posts on the topic. It’s guaranteed to give you a lift.

This week I’m reading If Nights Could Talk, a memoir written by my immensely talented friend Marsha Recknagel. The story reads like a thriller. Marsha is a poet, though, so she writes in a way that constantly startles me by offering up real and important things that I knew, but didn’t know I knew, because I didn’t have words to name them. Every time I come away from reading the book, my world is bigger.

On the knitting front, I’m onto the sleeves of Paul’s Tea with Jam and Bread sweater and am trying a new thing. I’m knitting seamless sleeves two at a time. I’ve done this a lot with sweaters where the sleeves are knit separately, but it occurred to me that it should work equally well when the sleeves are already attached. It was kind of fiddly at first, but as soon as I got a little length on the sleeves, it evened out, and now I’m really liking it. Does anyone else knit sleeves this way?

I’m joining in for another week of the Yarn Along today with a book on bees and a return to blanket knitting here at Casa Knit Potion.

A lot of the reading I’ve been doing lately has been pretty heavy, but I’ve just started Dave Goulson’s A Sting in the Tale. We have been keeping bees since we moved to Tennessee and are more amazed all the time by their industry and abilities. The current weather situation is especially perilous for them, so I’ve been casting around everywhere with the hope of learning about anything we might be able to do to help. I’ll keep you posted on the book.

On the knitting front, I’m back to knitting on my zigzag blanket, at least until the yarn for Paul’s new sweater arrives. Dana over at Yards of Happiness inspired me to knit him a Tea with Jam and Bread Sweater, and I can’t wait to dive in. I’m still loving the zigzags, though, so it’s all good until the mail person gets here with the box o’ yarn I got on super sale from Alpacas Direct.

If you’re looking for a mitt pattern, be sure to consider Raw Honey. I finished these yesterday, and the fit is perfect! This pair is for a friend, but I’ll be making some for myself soon. This is another Yards of Happiness inspired project.

I’ll leave you with a picture of the best card I’ve gotten in ages. This came in the mail earlier this week:

On the inside are words from Johnny Cash:”I walk the line.” For me, it should probably say, “I see the line over there somewhere in the distance and do my best not to lose sight of it entirely!”

Be sure to stop by Ginny Sheller’s Small Things blog for links to what lots of other people are knitting and reading this week.

I’m joining in for another week of the Yarn Along with detective fiction by J.K. Rowling (a.k.a. Robert Galbraith) and a stranded hat by Mary Jane Mucklestone.

The Cuckoo’s Calling is the first of J.K. Rowling’s Cormoran Strike novels, the series she writes under the Robert Galbraith pseudonym. I was in the mood for something especially readable and engaging, and since this had been on my list for awhile, I thought I’d give it a try. It’s definitely fitting the bill. There are tons of reviews online if you haven’t read it and are interested, so I’ll just say that at a hundred pages in, I’ve already got a soft spot in my heart for Cormoran Strike and his trusty assistant, Robin Ellacott.

The hat is Mary Jane Mucklestone’s Weston Beanie. It’s like a drug, absolutely hypnotic knitting. What else can I say?

Be sure to stop by Ginny Sheller’s Small Things blog for links to what lots of other people are knitting and reading this week.

Do you know about the Yarn Along? It’s a project started by Ginny Sheller, creator of the blog Small Things, and it speaks to the fact that many devoted knitters are also passionate readers. I’m not sure how to account for this, but my own experience bears it out.

And it’s not just that we love to knit and we love to read. It’s that we love the idea of knitting and books together! There’s something about a photo of a work in progress next to a book someone’s in the middle of that absolutely warms my soul.*

Whatever the reason, it’s a wonderful thing, and a visit to the Small Things blog on any given Wednesday serves up a whole lot of wonderful. It takes you to Ginny’s own picture of what she’s knitting and reading and to links for what lots of other people are knitting and reading as well. On November 16, there were 83 links to book and knitting photos.

Until now, I’ve enjoyed the Yarn Along without actually participating, but I’ve decided to join in the fun. So here’s my first Yarn Along photo.

You won’t be surprised to see my zigzag blanket. I’m just about halfway at this point and still loving every second of all of this color. The book I’m reading, Yoga and the Quest for the True Self, looks at the philosophy of yoga alongside the insights of Western psychology. It’s fascinating, definitely one of the most interesting things I’ve read in a long time. Both the blanket knitting and the book have been helping keep me hopeful and grounded lately.

Thank you for stopping by. Wishing everyone a peaceful Thanksgiving doing at least a little of whatever it is you love to do.